Blueprint

More about the book

For too long, scientists have emphasized the darker aspects of our biological heritage, such as aggression and self-interest. However, natural selection has also endowed us with beneficial social traits, including love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath our inventions—tools, farms, machines, cities—we possess innate tendencies that foster a good society. The author introduces the idea that our genes influence not only our physical traits and behaviors but also how we form societies that share surprising similarities across the globe. Through vivid examples, including diverse cultures, communities formed after shipwrecks, utopian communes, online groups, and the intricate social structures of elephants and dolphins, it becomes clear that, despite a history marked by violence, we are guided by a social blueprint for goodness. In an era of increasing political and economic division, it is easy to overlook the positive aspects of our evolutionary past. By drawing on insights from social science, evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience, and network science, the book illustrates how evolution has set us on a path toward humanity and highlights our shared human experience.